Ditor forming grader



sept. 2, H924. 1,507,552-

J. D. ADAMS ET AL DITCH FORMING GRADER Filed Aug. 23, 1920 z'sheets-sheea 1 X u 01 Joseph llfldama Roy 5/? 0661,7716,

Sept. 2,, E924. 1,507,552

J. D. ADAMS ET AL DITCH FORMING GRADER Filed Aug. 23. 1920 2Sheets-Sheet 2 jwuwnh'z Joseph D. H cl Fey 5 fldam'gg 1 Patented Sept.2, 192.4.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH I). ADAMS AND ROY ADAMS, Ol INDIANAIOLIS, INDlAlFll-it,ASEJIGNORS TD J. D. ADAMS AND CO., A PARTNERSHIP GONtlISTING Gilt J, D.ADAIrTS, 13.. ADAMS, W. R. ADAMS, AND J. I). ADAMS, TRUSTEE.

BITCH-FORMING GRADER.

Application filed August 23, 192-0.

To all iii/10m 71/ may concern:

Be it known that we, JOSEPH D. Anarrs and llor E. Aunts, citizens of theUnited States, residing at Indianapolis, in the county of Marion andState of Indiana, have invented .a new and useful Ditch-Forming Grader.of which the following is a specilication.

It is the object of our invention to provide a road grader with a banksloper attachment, which is preferably removable, whereby with a singleoperation the bottom and outside slope of a ditch at the side of theroad may be worked at the same time that the inside slope of the ditchis worked, and the entire quantity of dirt from both slopes of the ditchmay be carried out to and placed on the road to build it up and give itits proper crowning.

In carrying out our invention, we attach to the outer end of the moldboard or blade a simplemental blade, preferably by a pivotal attachmentwhereby the vertical angle between the two may be adjusted to vary theangle between the outer and inner slopes of the ditch. This supplementalblade is at tached to the forward end of the oblique main blade, and ispreferably in substantially the same vertical plane as the main blade:so that in operation the outer end of. the supplemental blade is thefarthest advanced, and the dirt is fed from the outside slope of theditch down into and up the inside slope of the ditch onto the road byreason of the obliqueness of the entire blade combination, formed of themain blade and the suj iplemental blade, with respect to the directionof travel. In order to get the full advantage of this supplementalblade, we prefer to use it on graders in which the wheels are tiltableto leaningpositions, and in which the bark wheels are laterallyshiftable to make them travel in any desired path; that the front andrear wheels on that side of the grader which is toward the ditch maytravel in the ditch and all the wheels may be made to lean to resist thetendency of the reaction of the dirt on the blades. particularly on thesupplemental blade, to draw the entire grader into the bank, thusholding the machine properly in the desired line of travel.

The accompanying drawings illustrate our Serial No. 405,318.

ii'ivention: ship. 1 is a fragn'ientary perspective view of the frontpart of a leaningwheel road grader equipped with a bacle sloper blade inaccordance with our invention, the main blade and the frame of themachine being shown only in part; Fig. 3 is a plan of the completemachine, but with the controlling mechanism in the main omitted; and 3is a diagran'nnatic cross section through a road and ditch, showing theaction of the main and supplemental blades thereon.

The grader comprises a main frame 10 connecting a front axle 11 and arear axle 12, the front axle being mounted to turn on a suitable hing;bolt for guiding purposes, and the rear axle being slidable transverselyof the frame by suitable operating mecha nism iii. The front and therear axles are provided with suitable aarrying wheels 15 and 16respectively, each of which is pivotally connected to its axle on ahorizontal axis 17 which permits it to be tilted to any desired leaningposition in either direction from the vertical. The tilting of the frontwheels 1; controlled in common by suitable operating mechanism 19, andthat of the rear wheels by suitable operating mechanism 20. Theoperating mechanisms 13, 1?), and 20 are shown only sullicieutly toindicate their character. T he forward end of a sub-frame 21 is looselypivoted on a pivot pin 25 near the front end of the main frame l0, andthe rear end of such sub-frame is slidable transversely of the mainframe 10 by suitable operating mechanism 2?). "l he two ends of a crossbar 24-. on the sub-frame 10 are supported by two adjustable liftingdevices separately operable by suitable hanism 26 whereby the two sidesof the sub fra1nc may he raised or lowered relatively to each other, thepivoting of the sub-frame on the pin 22 being; suliieieutly loose topermit this.

A mold-hoard frame 27 is carried by the subframe :21. and iscireumferent. .ly adjust able about a pivotal center 3? by suitableoperating mechanism to vary the angle of the mold board or blade 30,carried by such mold-board frame 27. with respect to the direction oftravel of the graoer. All of these operating mechanisms referred to areshown only generally because they are now well known,

On the rear side of the mold board or main blade 30 near the bottomthereof at the right hand end (with reference to the direction oftravel) is bolted a hinge member 31, which is connected by a hinge pin32 to a similar hinge member 33 bolted to the back of a supplementalblade 34. This supplemental blade is the one which forms the bottom andoutside slope of the ditch, and for that purpose its lower or cuttingedge is preferably made of two parts 35 and 36 at an angle to each otherto form the desired vertical angle between the bottom and outside slopeof the ditch. The hinge pin 32 is transverse to the two blades, to allowthe vertical angle between the main and supplemental blades to be variedas desired; and to vary this angle the outer end of the supplementalblade 34 is connected to the sub-frame 21 by an adjustable bar 37, whichis made adjustable in length by being formed of two telescoping members38 and 39 which may be locked in any desired relative position by across pin 40 co-operating with suitable holes 41 in such members, aseries of such holes 41 being provided in one of the members. By varyingthe length of the adjustable bar 37, the vertical angle between the mainand supplemental blades is varied. By swinging the supplemental bladesufficie-ntly high it becomes possible to use the main blade 30 inregular road grader operation without interference from the supplementalblade, and yet with the supplemental blade well out of the way. Thoughit is thus not necessary to remove the supplemental blade when workingthe grader Without it, it can be removed when desired by disconnectingit at the pivot pin 32.

In order to pull the supplemental blade forward, it is provided with itsown draft frame 42, in the form of two diverging arms connected at theirrear ends to separated points on the supplemental blade, one of thempreferably extending down around the back of such supplemental blade tothe hinge member 33. The two arms of this frame are joined at theirforward ends, and are connected to a suitable pin 43 carried by alateral arm 44 fixed to the forward end of the sub-frame 21. Theconnection of the draft frame 42 to the pin 43 is sufficiently loose sothat it does not interfere with the raising and lowering of thesupplemental blade to obtain the desired adjustment of the latter. Thedraft frame 42 is ordinarily not adjustable in length (though this isnot necessarily the case), so that when the sup plemental blade is inuse the main blade 30 must be at substantially a predeterminedhorizontal angle with respect to the subframe 21, and that end of themain blade to which the supplemental blade is attached must be theadvanced end. In 'efiect, the

supplemental blade then becomes a vertically adjustable continuation ofthe main blade, with the outer end of the supplemental blade thefarthest advanced of the entire blade combination.

In operation, the grader is drawn forward by any suitable draft device,and usually has its right hand wheels in line with each other, as shown,and traveling in the ditch at the right hand side of the road. The rearaxle 12 0f the grader is adjusted to get this alinement of such righthand wheels. As the grader is drawn forward, the outer end of thesupplemental blade digs into the outer bank of the ditch, and cuts thedirt therefrom and moves it down into the ditch by the action of theedge 36 and by the angle of the blade with respect tothe direction of"travel. The edge 35 of the supplemental blade forms the bottom of theditch, and the dirt which is fed down into the ditch from the outerslope and that which is cut from the bottom of the ditch are fedtogether to the inside slope of the road and in front of the advancedend of the main mold board 30. This mold board or main blade 30 formsthe inside slope of the ditch, or the outer edge of the main road, andcarries toward the crown of the road not only the dirt which it itselfcuts away but also the dirt which is fed to it from the outside slope ofthe ditch and the bottom of the ditch by the supplemental blade 34, thusbuilding up the road.

Because of the obliqueness of the blade combination. with respect to thedirection of travel, with the part which co-operates with the outerslope of the ditch farthest advanced, the reaction of the dirt on theblades tends to draw the whole grader into the bank; and this iseffectively resisted by tilting the leaning wheels 15 and 16 toward thecrown of the road so. that they resist such tendency to draw into thebank. If the draft device, such as a tractor, is travcling well upon theroad, the draft connection may also tend to counteract the tendency todig into the bank, and then the front wheels need not lean so far towardthe road, if at all, or may in some cases even lean in the otherdirection. It is possible with this grader to form the entire ditch andboth its inner and outer slopes without requiring the grader proper totravel on the outer slope.

\Ve claim as our invention:

l. A ditch-forming road grader, comprising the combination of awheel-supported frame and a ground-cutting element, said ground-cuttingelement being angularly adjustable in a vertical plane and including twoblade members vertically angularly adjustable relative to each other.

2. A ditch-forming road grader, comprisg the @Qmbination of awheel-supported frame and a ground-cutting element, said ground-cuttingelement being angularly adjustable in a vertical plane and including twoblade members vertically angularly adjustable relative to each other,said blade members being oblique to the direction of travel of the roadgrader.

3. A ditch-forming road grader, comprising the combination of awheel-supported frame and a ground-cutting element, said ground-cuttingelement being angularly adjustable in a Vertical plane and including amain blade and a supplemental blade vertically angularly adjustablerelative to each other, said main blade being oblique to the directionof travel of the road grader.

4. A ditch-forming road grade, comprising the combination of awheel-supported frame and a ground-cutting element, said ground-cuttingelement being angularly adjustab e in a vertical plane and including amain blade and a supplemental blade vertically angularly adjustablerelative to each other, said supplemental blade projecting laterallybeyond the supporting whee s.

5. A ditch-forming road grader, comprising the combination of awheel-supported frame and a ground-cutting element, said ground-cuttingelement being angularly adjustable in a vertical plane and including amain blade and a supplemental blade verticaily angularly adjustablerelative to each other, said supplemental blade having a cutting edgeformed of two parts at an angle to each other for forming the bottom andouter slope of a ditch. 6. A ditch-forming road grader, comprismg thecombination of a main frame, Wheels for supporting said main frame, anda ground-cutting element, said groud-cutting element being angularlyadjustable in a vertical plane and including a supplemental bladeadapted to form the outer slope of a ditch, said wheels being tiltableto counteract the tendency of said supplemental blade to cut into suchouter ditch slope.

7 A ditch-forming road grader, comprising the combination of a mainframe, wheels for supporting said main frame, and

a ground-cutting element, said ground-cutting element being angularlyadjustable in a vertical plane and including a supplemental bladeadapted to form the outer slope of a ditch, said wheels being adjustableso that their planes of rotation may be changed relative to said frameto counteract the tendency of said supplemental blade to cut into suchouter ditch slope.

8. A ditch-forming road grader, comprising the combination of a mainframe, wheels for supporting said main frame, and a ground-cuttingelement, said ground outing element being angularly adjustable in avertical plane and including a supplemental blade adapted to form theouter slope of a ditch, at least one of said sup porting wheels beingadjustable so that its plane of rotation may be changed relative to saidframe to counteract the tendency of said supplemental blade to out intothe outer ditch slope.

9. In combination with a road grader having a frame and a main blade, alaterally adjustable member, and a supplemental blade carried by saidlaterally adjustable member and vertically angularly adjustable relativeto said frame.

10. A ditch-forming road grader, comprising front and rear axles, wheelsfor sup porting said axles, a rigid main frame connecting said axles,and a ground-cutting element vertically and latera ly adjustablerelative to said main frame and including two blade members verticallyangularly adjustable relative to each other.

11. A ditch-forming road grader, com prising front and rear axles,wheels for supporting said axles, a rigid main frame connecting saidaxles, and a ground-cutting element angularly adjustable in a verticalplane and including two blade members vertically angularly adjustablerelative to each other.

12. A ditch-forming road grader as set forth in claim 11 with theaddition that said main frame is latera ly adjustable on said rear-axle.

13. A ditcl1for1ning road grader, comprising a combination of awheel-supported frame and a ground-cutting element, said ground-cuttingelement being bodily adjustable in height relative to said frame andalso angularly adjustable in a vertical plane, said ground cuttingelement including two blade members vertically angularly adjustablerelative to each other.

In witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hands at Indianapolis,Indiana, this 6th day of August, A. D. one thousand nine hundred andtwenty.

J. D. ADAMS. R. E. ADAMS.

